EAST COAST OF ENGLAND. 69 



The last fortnight in October is the average annual period of 

 what may be called the " great rush " of immigrants on to 

 the East Coast of England. 



In previous reports we have drawn attention to the fact of 

 a migration in opposite directions going on at the same time 

 over the North Sea. This is observed more particularly at south- 

 eastern stations, on light vessels moored at many miles distance 

 from the nearest land, where, during the spring and autumn, 

 the same species of birds, as Crows, Books, Jackdaws, Starlings, 

 Larks, Sparrows, Buntings and Finches, are recorded crossing 

 the North Sea moving from opposite quarters and passing 

 both towards the British coast and towards the Continent. 

 This apparently abnormal movement in opposite directions is 

 again indicated in the autumn and spring of 1884-5. 



In a recent article in the ' Encyclopaedia Britannica,' Pro- 

 fessor Newton tells us that " there is scarcely a bird of either 

 the Palaearctic or Nearctic regions, whose habits are at all well 

 known, of which much the same may not be said ; and hence 

 we are led to the conclusion that every bird of the Northern 

 Hemisphere is, to a greater or less degree, migratory in some 

 part or other of its range." There can be no doubt that in this 

 passage Professor Newton indicates the probable explanation of 

 the special phenomena attending a double migration as recorded 

 from time to time in our reports. 



With very few exceptions, the vast majority of our British 

 birds, such as are generally considered habitual residents, the 

 young invariably, the old intermittingly, leave these islands in 

 the autumn, their place being taken by others, not always 

 necessarily of the same species, coming from more northern 

 latitudes, or from districts of Eastern Europe, where, on the 

 approach of winter, the conditions of locality and food-supply 

 are found less favourable to existence. These immigrants on 

 the approach of spring leave, moving back to the Continent on 

 the same lines, but in the reverse direction to those traversed in 

 the autumn ; at the same time, also, our own birds return from 

 the Continent to their nesting-quarters in these islands. To give 

 one instance, out of many which might be cited, that of the 

 Blackbird : — In the autumn, during September, the young of 

 the year leave their summer-quarters, and their place is shortly 

 taken by others, likewise young birds, coming in October and 



